According to WWD, Yang Mi — China’s top actress with 104.91 million followers on Weibo, China’s own Twitter — terminated her newly minted contract with Versace on Saturday evening.
Apparently, the issue can be traced to the brand and potentially some problematic issues “Our company and Ms. Yang found online that ‘some clothing designed by Versace are suspected of damaging China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.’ As a company of the People’s Republic of China and Ms. Yang as a citizen of the People’s Republic of China, we feel very angry!” said a statement issued by her studio on Weibo, which amassed more than 46,000 shares and 28,000 likes within two hours.
According to WWD, the whole thing started with an image of a Versace t-shirt that circulated on Weibo, where the t-shirt listed Beijing and Shanghai as part of China but didn’t include Macau and Hong Kong. Of course, this is on the coattails of previous backlash that has occurred in China with other brands, notable Dolce and Gabbana and Phillip Plein. Pretty much, Yang ended her contract after the t-shirt listed Hong Kong as a country rather than a city, although it is a special administrative region of China.
Versace has since apologized for the t-shirt, saying that ““This is our negligence and we are deeply sorry about the impact we caused,” Versace said in the post, adding that it “resolutely respects China’s sovereignty.”
For context, China and Hong Kong have had a tumultuous relationship as anti-Beijing protests have happened in the city for months.
